How to Switch Careers Successfully

Your career is what defines what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.

Most people change careers multiple times in their lives. What you chose to do and work with is not only your livelihood, it’s the life you chose as well. Which is why finding yourself in a job that is both suffocating and stagnating at the same time is a sure fire indication that you need a switch and that too as soon as possible. The signs usually vary from lack of interest, low levels of motivation and a feeling of numbness inside and you know it’s time for a change when getting up every morning to get to work becomes a task rather than something that you look forward to. While having a stable career is important, remaining stuck in one that shapes no future for you is one of the deepest hole you can dig yourself into. So, if you’re thinking of a switching careers, then here are a few steps that will help you do it successfully.

Research

Acting on an impulse never works, not when you’re ordering lunch in a restaurant and definitely not when you’re planning a career switch. When you’re planning to make the shift, the first thing that you must do is have the research down pat. When you’re thinking of a change it’s just not enough to know the name of the company you’re eyeing and its turnover. What you must do is go into this shift fully informed and with the knowledge of the good, the bad and the possible ugly. Only once your research is done completely can you move onto the next step.

Network

Once you’ve done your research, it is only logically to back it up, prove it right or wrong if you may say – and what better way to do it than network! Networking is a very important part of one’s professional career. Gone are the days when all you needed was hard work to prove your mettle, in today’s world it’s all about working hard and working smart. When you network, you automatically start building your database and that in turn helps you validate all your research. There’s no better way to get to know a company and make your career switch successful other than networking.

Make an Action Plan

Once you’re well informed of where you’re planning the move, the next thing to do is make an action plan. A good action plan is all about asking the right questions and doing what you can to address them in the best way possible. What’s your primary goal and ideal timeline? How do you prepare yourself? How do you strategically break the news to your boss and colleagues? These are only a few things that you need to ask yourself and include in your action plan in order to make your switch successful. Maybe even go to the extent of assigning yourself daily or weekly tasks so that you know what you’ll be doing when you sit down in front of your computer in the name of a career switch.

Mobilize

What’s a plan without any action right? At the end of the day a successful career switch can happen only if you mobilize your action plan. Leveraging some of your current skills and experiences to your new career, getting like-minded people on board, using your relationship with your colleagues to gain support and maybe even get them to join you in making the switch, updating your skills and take any extra training and courses that you may think can help you among others – are some ways of mobilizing your action plan to guarantee a successful career switch.

Find a Mentor

Everybody needs a mentor. Someone who can guide you in your endeavors, put you back on track when you stray a little, tell you when you’re wrong, encourages you when you do something good and the likes, never lets you miss a thing, reminds you of every appointment and every meeting so that you don’t fall behind and keeps motivating you no matter what. Funnily enough a mentor need not always be a person, it could also be a smart device that fulfills all the above criterion, like the Titan Juxt Pro. A smart watch with many faces that comes inbuilt with technology far superior to any other in the industry, the Juxt Pro will always be by your side, reminding you of everything important and noteworthy that’s going on in your life and pointing you to the right direction whenever you get derailed. Quite a mentor, right?!

It’s never too late to get yourself the dream job you’ve always wanted. All you have to do is believe in yourself and take the plunge.